


The Sun Also Rises

by AuthorMontresor



Category: DuckTales (Cartoon 2017), PKNA - Paperinik New Adventures
Genre: Character Study, Drama, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Family, Friendship, Gen, Memories, Sad
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-24
Updated: 2019-03-24
Packaged: 2019-12-07 00:11:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 790
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18227288
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AuthorMontresor/pseuds/AuthorMontresor
Summary: Right after Xadhoom's departure, the Duck Avenger gets reminded of the other person he could not keep safe.





	The Sun Also Rises

**Author's Note:**

  * For [sonicdrift2](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sonicdrift2/gifts).
  * Inspired by [To The Moon and Back](https://archiveofourown.org/works/18072047) by [sonicdrift2](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sonicdrift2/pseuds/sonicdrift2). 



> Massive spoilers for the PKNA's comics ahead. I won't say 'read at your own risk': you really should not.  
> Get the comics, first, then come back. You will thank me.

 

He had asked her for a favour, last time. There was no time to collect it.

The Duck Avenge sighs as the light of the alien Sun scatters rainbows against the Evronian spaceship. Slowly, he lifts a hand and leaves it against the glass, as if trying to catch a few more rays of that sudden, new Sun, the light that will give hope and home to her people.

Then he’s in interstellar space, and the new Sun is just a memory of purpose and catharsis, lost behind him, and there’s nothing else to do, really. A smile breaks upon his face, but is not a happy smile. His vision is blurry, for some reason. His other hand holds the metal data pack she has given to him. _Something important_ , she had deemed it.

He was not even able to say goodbye.

Unwelcome like the unpaid bills of dull earthly life, the memory strikes back. The second time he was not able to say goodbye to an important person, the second time she slipped through his fingers, the second time he was not able to change her mind.

He sighs, and thankfully, the Evronian starship does not pick it up, this time. He’s alone with his thoughts.

On the other hand, he has no distraction. He spares a look at the empty green dot on the top left corner of his X-transformer. This time, at least, One will _have_ to listen to him as he recounts the story. Not much to say, really. Those two were never really that close, were they?

And now he’s already thinking about her in the past tense.

He frowns.

Was that how it had happened with Della? When did he start thinking of Della as being _in the past_?

Maybe after the third year. Maybe after the fourth. He looks down at the grey, uncomforting data pack in his hands. After Scrooge gave up.

No. Not gave up. That would be… unkind. After he had almost depleted his resources.

Della had not been found.

And what could he do? He was but a small, fragile duck. His old car could fly, but only barely so, and certainly not fly through the upper strata of the atmosphere.

Then One happened. Then Ducklair, and the Evronians, and… and Lyla, and… everything, really.

The data pack has no answers. His vision is still blurry.

All things considered, maybe it’s a good thing he’s all alone up here.

He has not even managed to say goodbye.

When he opens his beak to say so, he finds out he cannot. The words die upon the threshold of his throat.

 _Goodbye_ , _Beauty Eyes_.

 _Rest well_.

 _I will miss you_.

All variations on the same theme, all of them bringing him back to that damn night with Della.

Maybe he just does not want to accept it. Always been so stubborn. So dead-set.

He had asked her for a favour.

He had not been able to look all over the moon. Or maybe he’d been afraid at… what he might have found. And whenever he had a free moment, one when the nephews were away on one of their trips, crime in Duckburg took a summer break, and no time-raiding criminals were breaking into maximum-security prisons, he could have always taken Ducklair’s ship, and flew to the moon.

He could have taken a long, hard look.

Maybe he’d only been nothing else but a small, frail duck.

So he had asked her for a favour.

Last time, after that debacle with the mutant Evronians and the Ducklair Tower almost being blown up. After she had… calmed down.

 _Beauty Eyes_ , he had said, and he traces the words with his lips now. _Can you do one thing for me_?

She could breathe in space. She was a scientist, a genius, she was…

He grits his teeth. There again with the past tense.

 _If there is anyone who can find her, it’s Xadhoom_ , he had told himself.

But there had been no time, really. The Empire on the move, its trap… and their final confrontation.

A true smile dawns on his beak now, though. All worth it, though. She had seemed so… at ease, in the end.

At peace.

The Duck Avenger takes one last long look at the data pack.

He might find a few answers there, but answers meant for another time.

He blinks, and his vision is not blurry anymore, but there’s some dampness down his cheek. Must be this starship’s odd air, or something got in his throat.

She seemed so at peace. At last.

The Duck Avengers inhales, slowly, and then lets it all out.

 _Tomorrow is a new day_ , he decides.

And now, not just on Earth.

**Author's Note:**

> The end of Xadhoom's journey has hit me with a gut punch that is still fresh after decades. I can easily say the PKNA comics have been hugely influential to me. I have been working on revising my Little Witch Academia story these days, but during a break from work I also watched the new Duck Tales episode, and this narrative sort of came up by itself, as I came back to read my old PKNA's comics.  
> I have to also admit having the two characters of Della and Xadhoom sort-of-interact was influenced by gayamyrose's story To The Moon and Back, therefore this little piece is also a gift to her.
> 
>  
> 
> I hope you liked this short tale, another brick in the small pile of PKNA fanworks on the internet. Seriously guys, get those comics (English fan translations easily float around in the internet, just look for something akin to 'Paperinik New Adventures fan translation'), they are crazy good, better than pretty much anything produced these days.   
> See you soon with more cute witches.


End file.
